Active, durable metal nanocatalysts with low platinum (Pt) content are desired for various purposes including energy storage devices such as fuel cells, lowering the cost of hydrogen generators through water electrolysis, and in Li-ion or Li-air batteries. One form of suitable metal nanocatalysts is core-shell nanoparticles where a thin platinum shell surrounds a non-platinum core. While several core-shell nanoparticles with a narrow distribution of particle size have displayed high catalytic performance, methods to produce them in large quantity, uniformly and inexpensively are desirable. These approaches, to some degree, decrease Pt utilization, but may not fully solve the problem of Pt dependence. For example, to substitute the active but expensive Pt-based oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst, recent advances have been made to develop low cost alternatives such as metal-N complex on carbon matrixes, perovskites, spinel oxides, and carbon-based nanomaterials. However, these catalyst materials may not meet the requirements of combined high catalytic activity, better durability and low cost. Moreover, catalyst systems other than those based on Pt, systems may not act as an electrocatalyst in both anion-exchange and proton-exchange membrane fuel cells. Therefore, there is a need for low cost efficient alternatives to Pt catalysts.